June 17 in LGBTQ History

1971: E. M. Forster-famous for such novels as Maurice, Howard’s End, A Passage to India, and A Room with a View-dies at the age of ninety-one in Coventry, England.

1985: A New Orleans man, Johnny Greene, writes an article for People magazine about his personal struggle with AIDS-Related Complex, and is rewarded for his honesty by being immediately dismissed from the Louisiana construction firm that employs him. People later hires him as a consulting correspondent.

1990: Twelve Marines shouting “Kill the fags!” attack and beat three gay men outside a Washington, D.C., gay bar, leaving two of the men unconscious on the sidewalk. Two of the soldiers are later “disciplined” with fines of $400 each and a thirty-day restriction to barracks.

2009: President Obama signs a referendum allowing the same-sex partners of federal employees to receive benefits, though they are not allowed full health coverage.